The New York Times on Monday ramped up its ongoing feud with President Donald Trump, accusing him of using “intimidation tactics” after the administration pushed back against the newspaper’s reporting on Elon Musk and the Defense Department.
The Times took to X (formerly Twitter), the very platform owned by Musk, to defend its coverage, claiming that Trump’s criticism would “never cause us to back down from our mission of holding powerful people to account.” The statement specifically mentioned Peter Baker, Maggie Haberman, and Baker’s wife, Susan Glasser, a writer for The New Yorker, calling them fair and balanced journalists—an assertion many conservatives would strongly dispute.
Trump, known for calling out the blatant bias of legacy media, responded Sunday night on Truth Social, slamming the Times’ coverage as dishonest and politically motivated. He took particular aim at Haberman—whom he called “Hagerman”—and Baker, writing:
“There’s something really wrong with these people, and their SICK, DERANGED EDITORS. They did everything in their power to help rig the Election against me. How did that work out???”
The Times, which has long portrayed itself as a champion of journalism, quickly framed Trump’s comments as an attack on the free press, rather than addressing the deeper concerns about its editorial slant and reliance on anonymous sources to shape political narratives.
In a defensive statement, Times spokesman Charles Stadtlander suggested the real issue wasn’t the accuracy of their reporting but rather Trump’s attempt to “make it more difficult for reporters to bring to light important information.” In reality, what the administration—and the Pentagon—criticized was a highly speculative story involving Musk and classified military intelligence.
The piece, published late Thursday, claimed that the billionaire was set to receive a briefing on top-secret military plans in the event of war with China—a claim the Defense Department immediately and forcefully rejected. The Times refused to back down, even as its reporting appeared to unravel. After the Pentagon condemned the story, the Times conveniently followed up with a new report saying the meeting was called off only after the article was published—essentially moving the goalposts on its original claim.
The media’s repeated mischaracterization of Trump’s criticisms as “threats to democracy” is nothing new. From the Russia hoax to the suppression of stories unfavorable to Democrats, outlets like the New York Times have established themselves as political actors rather than neutral reporters of fact.
Haberman, in particular, has made a career out of covering Trump with a relentless negative slant, even profiting off her 2022 book, “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America.” Her reporting has routinely relied on anonymous sources and selective leaks, yet when challenged, the Times quickly retreats to claims of victimhood and “press intimidation.”
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One Response
Why do you and the frum world defend this terrible behavior? You know and we know it’s absurd that a President is behaving like this. Are you that far gone that you can’t admit it?